Computer Freezes When External Hard Drive is Accessed

I bought an HP v165w 32 GB USB 2.0 flash drive off of Amazon and when I plugged it into my USB port and tried to transfer files to it, my computer froze and I had to hold the power button to shut it down.

This happens every time I try to access the flash drive.

Additionally I have 2 other external hard drives that has always worked for me for years and now those too are freezing my computer when I try to access them. It seems like the HP flash drive affected my computer in such a way that it is preventing other devices from working properly.

I have gone into Device Manager and uninstalled the USB Host drivers and restarted my computer. That did not solve the problem.

I have tried using different USB ports on my computer and that has not made a difference.

I have tried uninstalling the drivers for the individual external hard drives and then have them be reinstalled the next time I plug them in. That has not worked.

For some reason though, when I connect my old external hard drives through a powered USB hub I do not experience the freezing. What sucks is that I think my USB Hub is USB 1.0 so it takes forever for anything to transfer.

Every time I plug in the HP flash drive into the USB Hub I get a message saying the driver could not be properly loaded, or that I don't have access to the drive, et cetera.

I am pretty sure the HP flash drive is no good and needs to be returned but does anyone know what I can do to prevent my old external hard drives from freezing my computer without the use of a USB hub?

Hello and welcome Ben mate a little more specs would help mate because to see what speed USB the machine supports we need at least the model and more inportnatly the motherboard.
Use this to find those details out.
Using HW Info
You can test the volts on the PSU with HW Info HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download < download the right bit version and close the right hand window select Sensors and scroll down to the power section where you will see what the volts are doing see my pic.
The original right hand window shows the machine running and is handy for that but for looking at the components in some detail close it and use the main left hand side panel
FOR OTHER COMPONENTS
Open each + down into the component itself and then click on it - in the right hand side will appear all sorts of details including brands speeds and other essential info that device. See pic for example.
Use the lower part and find the model of the motherboard please.

Sorry late reply Ben mate the volts look ok - the temps do a look a little on the high side to me and I would be checking all in vents to the machine and also look into the fan intake see my little ditty for cleaning unopened laptops.

CLEANING A LAPTOP FAN & COOLER RAD
The thing you do is to turn over the laptop and shine a very bright light into the air intake aperture (you will see the fan there) and then while doing that look at the outlet vent on the end of the laptop you should see the light quite clearly shining through the cooling " radiator" if not it is clogged and will need cleaning as will probably the fan opening.
You can do this by blowing it out using a compressed air can in short bursts.
BUT ONE WORD OF WARNING DO NOT blow the air into the fan opening without inserting say a plastic rod or large cable tie to stop the fan from spinning as the air blast will spin the fan at a very high speed that it is not designed to take and may wreck the bearing!!
The "rad" you can clean very gently with one of those pipe cleaners / chenille craft wires. see pic

Plus see my pic for where these are most laptops are reasonably similar:)

If you need a hand with anything inside post back

PS Meant to mention in addition to what Jumanji asked you to do try this
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html < if necessary include the /f and /r in the command line as per Option2

This could help you: USB Driver - General Fix for Problems you have to fix the USB drivers for your problem.